Little Yash cries for father who was killed in blast

By Ritu Sharma Ahmedabad, July 29 (IANS) “Mummy, papa ke paas jana hai (I want to go to mummy and papa,” cries 11-year-old Yash, his little body swathed in bandages as he lies in a bed at the Civil Hospital here. Little does Yash know that his father was killed in Saturday’s explosion at the hospital that left him and his elder brother badly injured. Yash suffered 50 percent burns in the blast that hit the hospital when the wounded were being wheeled in. His 14-year-old brother Rohan lies on an adjacent bed, wailing in pain. He has suffered 75 percent burns and his condition is stated to be critical.

Yash has to be fed intravenously. Doctors say his recovery would be slowed down because of the trauma he has suffered.

The two brothers and their father had come cycling down to the hospital from a nearby locality when the bomb exploded in the hospital’s trauma centre Saturday evening.

“I am constantly requesting people to stay out of this ward. Apart from posing a possible infection source, the crowds remind the kids of the blast as the trauma centre was crowded when the incident happened,” a doctor on duty told IANS.

Two high intensity bombs exploded in the state-run Civil Hospital, the city’s biggest hospital, when victims of the serial blasts elsewhere were being rushed in for treatment. The hospital blasts killed over a dozen people.

“The mother of the two kids is also in a state of shock,” their aunt Bhawna said.

Bhavesh, 20, the only breadwinner of his family, has not yet got over the shock of the explosion that hit him and left him badly injured. His only mistake was to have rushed to help the injured at the hospital when they were being wheeled in on Saturday. Little did he know that a powerful bomb would jeopardize his own life.

Seeing this correspondent standing by his bed, Bhavesh beckoned with his bandaged hand. “When can I drink water and begin to eat,” he mumbled.

His distraught mother Basanti said: “He was taking out a victim on a stretcher when the bomb exploded. He was the only bread earner of our family. His father died earlier. I do not know what will happen now.”

Another Samaritan who rushed to help blast victims, Vinod Bhai, lies on another bed, his limbs paralysed.

“I had brought 10-15 people from the blast sites in Bapu Nagar to the hospital. But now I will never be able to go to help people in distress again,” said Vinod Bhai, an auto rickshaw driver. His two daughters and wife are yet to recover from the shock.

Family members of the injured are filled with anger against the terrorists and their senseless act of violence.

“The terrorists have destroyed everything,” said Saroj. Her father was severely injured in the blasts.

“It is like hitting below the belt. The terrorists planned the serial blasts meticulously. They knew the city has only two government hospitals and expected the victims of the earlier blasts to be rushed there and targeted them as well,” said Franic D’souza, who had come to offer his services to the victims.